ATT slowing download speeds...

MAGiK9

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I am on an unlimited plan. I just received a text message from ATT stating that I was approaching the top 5% of bandwidth users and if I continued to use my UNLIMITED bandwidth, they would slow my download speeds. What a joke.
 

planoman

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yep looks like about 5GB in your cycle will cause that. I still use wifi when I can to save my data for when I video call or email/text or a googl search for something and sometimes to show off the LTE speed! lol! I set my market settings to only update apps on wifi. Used 1.8 GB my last cycle which was the highest amount I have used.

I have unlimited but do not want to get into habits that will get me throttled.
 

Tom S.

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I am on an unlimited plan. I just received a text message from ATT stating that I was approaching the top 5% of bandwidth users and if I continued to use my UNLIMITED bandwidth, they would slow my download speeds. What a joke.

Download as much as you can and tell us how much they throttle you and at what point it begins.
 

Aquarium1

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That sucks. I lament not getting onboard when it was still unlimited. How can they push the LTE and then tell you not to take advantage at the same time? People sued apple because iphones scratched. I can see ATT getting sued for advertising high speeds, then not letting you use them.
 

planoman

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That sucks. I lament not getting onboard when it was still unlimited. How can they push the LTE and then tell you not to take advantage at the same time? People sued apple because iphones scratched. I can see ATT getting sued for advertising high speeds, then not letting you use them.

I hear you, but 5GB is a lot of data in 30 days. I agree that they are advertizing fast speeds and they are fast. Bandwidth is not unlimited. Lots of people on the networks. All companies have to manage this somehow.
 

milan03

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I hear you, but 5GB is a lot of data in 30 days. I agree that they are advertizing fast speeds and they are fast. Bandwidth is not unlimited. Lots of people on the networks. All companies have to manage this somehow.

You'd be surprised if you knew how easy is to go through 5GB of data when your device gives you home-like broadband connection. Everything you used to deprive yourself from doing on a cell phone you'll be able to do on a LTE device perfectly fine.
Guys, it's not your regular HSPA experience...
 

Tom S.

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You'd be surprised if you knew how easy is to go through 5GB of data when your device gives you home-like broadband connection. Everything you used to deprive yourself from doing on a cell phone you'll be able to do on a LTE device perfectly fine.
Guys, it's not your regular HSPA experience...

I download audio and video podcasts and watch Netflix and Google movies in addition to other things. I was driving to Florida and I was using my old Nexus One as a hotspot, and my daughter burned through 1 GB of data in just a few hours watching Netflix on my Galaxy tab. It's pretty easy. I travel too, and some hotels either try to gouge you $15/day for Wifi, or their Wifi isn't much better than dialup.
 

planoman

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You'd be surprised if you knew how easy is to go through 5GB of data when your device gives you home-like broadband connection. Everything you used to deprive yourself from doing on a cell phone you'll be able to do on a LTE device perfectly fine.
Guys, it's not your regular HSPA experience...

I hear you! I still use wifi at home and when I travel. (Hotels) when ever possible. I have used LTE to video call my kids when traveling because most hotel still have G wireless and not N and the picture is outstanding not all jittery like a crappy wifi signal! Like I said, I understand their need to manage the bandwidth but they should not be throttling to the speeds I have hear they are throttling. They should at least give you 3g speeds if throttled. I am just glad I have unlimited data. Would hate to have LTE on a 2GB plan.
 

planoman

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I download audio and video podcasts and watch Netflix and Google movies in addition to other things. I was driving to Florida and I was using my old Nexus One as a hotspot, and my daughter burned through 1 GB of data in just a few hours watching Netflix on my Galaxy tab. It's pretty easy. I travel too, and some hotels either try to gouge you $15/day for Wifi, or their Wifi isn't much better than dialup.

Like I said, 5GB is a lot of data! lol! :)
 

Aquarium1

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I hear you, but 5GB is a lot of data in 30 days. I agree that they are advertizing fast speeds and they are fast. Bandwidth is not unlimited. Lots of people on the networks. All companies have to manage this somehow.

I am sure I have easily gone thru 5gb, but that is because I use wifi at every possible point. If I did have an unlimited plan, I wouldn't be nearly as concerned. :)
 

planoman

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How is 5GB a month a lot of data if you can burn 1GB of data every few hours, especially if you are on the go all the time?
I hope that was a joke lol

Seriously, when do you find time to go through all that data, what are you doing? By definition it is a lot of data since only about 5% of users hit that. That is 95% of smartphone users on AT&T unlimited plan are not hitting that and we know the regular data plans are not hitting anything close to that. That is averaging over 165 MB of data every day for a month. Wifi is everywhere. I leave my connect to ATT wifi automatically box checked and it is always connecting. Seems like there is a starbucks at every corner in DFW. Even if I am not in starbucks it seems like my wifi is connecting.

You guys must use your phones for a lot more data wise than I do, I mean it is a 4.5 inch screen... I also use a laptop and tablet as well. Oh well, sucks to be the one who gets throttled to 100 kbps or whatever they drop you too. I guess you could go to Sprint...
 

planoman

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I am sure I have easily gone thru 5gb, but that is because I use wifi at every possible point. If I did have an unlimited plan, I wouldn't be nearly as concerned. :)

I agree. I am sure I go through a lot as well but most of the time on wifi and I do have unlimited. I agree that LTE is very tempting to say forget the wifi, but I guess my habits are set to maximize wifi and minimize data from the days when the cellular data plans were much slower than wifi and the carrier emphasized that wifi does not count towards your data plan.
 

milan03

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Seriously, when do you find time to go through all that data, what are you doing? By definition it is a lot of data since only about 5% of users hit that. That is 95% of smartphone users on AT&T unlimited plan are not hitting that and we know the regular data plans are not hitting anything close to that.

I think you're failing to see through AT&T's reality distortion field here... Their 5% of highest data users are mostly their 3G users where the speeds in most cases are capped at either 3.6mbps or 7.2mbps. Now with iPhone 4S launch that's slowly shifting to 14.4mbps where their HSPA+ network really caps since most of the metro areas are 16QAM only.

So yes, it's pretty hard to break 5GB on a 3.6mbps or 7.2mbps handset, but when you push 73.6mbps on your skyrocket, how is that comparable to the rest of 3G users?!??

Another example is Verizon where they implement caps only to top 5% of their 3G users and their LTE users aren't affected at all. I average on my verizon LTE line 50GB a month, pushed as high as 90GB. They actually encourage their customers to upgrade to LTE devices and offload their busy 3G network.

What AT&T is doing is a terrible, terrible business conduct. Completely opposite of "customer oriented company"
 

chmcke01

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I think you're failing to see through AT&T's reality distortion field here... Their 5% of highest data users are mostly their 3G users where the speeds in most cases are capped at either 3.6mbps or 7.2mbps. Now with iPhone 4S launch that's slowly shifting to 14.4mbps where their HSPA+ network really caps since most of the metro areas are 16QAM only.

So yes, it's pretty hard to break 5GB on a 3.6mbps or 7.2mbps handset, but when you push 73.6mbps on your skyrocket, how is that comparable to the rest of 3G users?!??

Another example is Verizon where they implement caps only to top 5% of their 3G users and their LTE users aren't affected at all. I average on my verizon LTE line 50GB a month, pushed as high as 90GB. They actually encourage their customers to upgrade to LTE devices and offload their busy 3G network.

What AT&T is doing is a terrible, terrible business conduct. Completely opposite of "customer oriented company"

Honestly I don't see how speed is relevant at all. 5 GB of data is 5 GB of data whether it was at 5 Mbps or 55 Mbps. So, if you do the same things on your fast connection as you would have done on your slow connection you would still be using the same amount of data even though it was much faster. The only real issue is that you are saying that because a webpage may load on 1 second instead of 10 that I will be going to many more web pages. In my case at least, that isn't true.
 

milan03

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So, if you do the same things on your fast connection as you would have done on your slow connection you would still be using the same amount of data even though it was much faster.

You don't. You realize that all the things you used to do only at your home connection, now you can do on the go and you stop depriving yourself from all the rich media experience. That's really what LTE was made for in it's core.
You basically said it, and missed the answer at the same time.
 

MAGiK9

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You also have to realize that (maybe) only 15-20% of ATT users are still on an unlimited plan. That's not a huge number of people when it is based off of percentages and not actual figures.it